On this Good Friday with the choir stalls empty, their eloquent occupants long having departed  like Christ taken though soon to return. While others on the benches await their turn, the long line of worshippers complete with push chairs looking to individually venerate the cross continue patiently to wait in line at Westminster Cathedral. It would take well over another hour before the procession would draw to a close. A fitting symbol of remembrance on this most solemn of days, the pinnacle of the Christian calendar when Christ gives himself to fulfil what was written in the Scriptures, to save man in an act of unbridled love.

Happy Easter Friends

As reported last month, the Senior Drama Society of Ellesmere College took their production of The Admirable Crichton to Massachusetts as part of a working drama tour. Before their performance at Ellesmere itself I was privileged to shoot at two of their technical rehearsals, one of which featured a campfire scene when during their unscheduled island stop, Luca Francesca Kuhn breaks into song accompanied by her fellow passengers of the impromptu plane ' landing '.

It was also an opportunity for me to test a shotgun microphone. Sincere apologies if I appear a disciple of the Paul Greengrass approach to video-making. I have since also made it a point to leave the auto focus alone!!

Thanks for watching and thanks to Luca for singing so beautifully.

That should really read ' Matters of Size ' since The Battle of The Bands came in all sizes

Please remember you can also look up my images of Ellesmere on Facebook


Enjoy your holidays everyone

I wasn't really surprised when a few weeks ago,  Lynne Stewart-Harris at Ellesmere's Business Studies Department mentioned that a Year 13 student from Japan was organising a concert, the proceeds from which would go towards helping the victims of the Tsunami tragedy in Japan. Such is the depth of community spirit and awareness that I have come to know of at the new Ellesmere.

Ami Takahashi's plan was to stage a concert with the help of students in the college who would each, in pairs or collectively, perform a piece of music.  And didn't they do just that and in numbers which may be viewed on my main site

Earlier in the afternoon, Hazel Wakefield of Ellesmere College Enterprises arranged for a visit from Emma Croall, a fundraiser with the International Red Cross


who presented students of the Lower School with certificates for their inventive efforts at raising funds towards the relief of displaced peoples in Japan by organising subscription-based sudoku games in school.


In the evening Emma addressed the audience and performers at the Arts Centre and while she sought no recognition, Ami was a well-deserved recipient of a certificate of recognition for her tremendous act of charity. Those of us who were fortunate to attend bore witness to the contributions of many who gave their time freely and readily.


Friends and followers of my blog will tell of my newfound joy at rediscovering Ellesmere. It's just stories like these that make it for me, the stories I am proud to tell about Ellesmere


Enjoy a Sunny Sunday my friends.

Bright and early on a damp and drizzly Thursday morning just coming up to the end of term, a fourteen-strong crew and cast from the production of the Admirable Crichton either dragged themselves out of bed

or made their way into the grounds of the college


in time to load up for their big Transatlantic crossing as part of an educational and cultural arrangement with the Tabor Academy in Boston, Massachusetts to showcase their latest production to American audiences.

Needless to say, they were not to depart undernourished.


Despite the early start to the proceedings of the day there was evidence of barely-contained excitement at the prospect of a ten-day excursion which seems a very desirable way to start one's Easter holidays even if the task of remembering parts and lines are sure to distract from the many joyful discoveries which lie in store.


As daylight beckoned it's all aboard for the opportunity to bring


a luxuriant flavour of Ellesmere to the land that was the destination of the Pilgrim Fathers nearly four hundred years ago.



Have Fun Y'all



PS - for the more youthful readers and followers of this blog, Please Come To Boston was a Billboard Hot 100 hit by Dave Loggins in 1974